Teen Railfan Place

Trains.com General Discussion (Trains.com)
2521

Well Happy New Year to TRP! 2008 was a good and interesting year. My photography didn’t start out to great at the start of the year, but I think it’s acceptable now! We’ll see if 2009 can fine tune those skills. I also can’t wait for the new 2009 trip line up! I think I decided on the LS&I and ICE.

But 2008 ended on a bad note too, with the news of some more stored IC and WC units. DMIR 212 got repainted, but I guess that’s good in a few ways. The DMIR SD38s might actually stay up there, and the EJE SD38s might actually have a life on CN.

The WIN also wishes you all a Happy New Year! [:P]

2522

Happy New Year!

It’s 2009 now!

My hopes for the EJ&E have been raised big time by 212 getting repainted!

2523

It’s too bad to hear the DMIR 212 was canoodleized, but then again it does give hope for the SD38s to stick around. I’ve heard rumors (strictly rumors keep in mind, though they do come from employees up that way), that after the merger the CN may look into shipping the EJE SD38s North to the Missabe. I was told they already have straight air piping even if it isn’t used on the J, so it would save them the time of converting other units to be used on the Missabe if ore traffic picks up again. Just rumors though, so I guess we’ll see what really happens in 2009…

Well, I’ve got my final chase of 2008 processed and uploaded as well. Like I mentioned before, the day started around 0930 with the discovery that the WSOR M4 job (The turn from Madison to Reedsburg), was still in town and was getting ready to run back south. For many, many years it was impossible to find a daylight southbound WSOR train on this end of the subdivision, it as always at night. In the last couple years though, the WSOR keeps shifting the schedule until finally, if he falls way behind, he makes a run south. Usually it’s in the early morning though (like 0600-0700 out of Reedsburg), so a trip later in the morning and in the snow was worth chasing.

I found him first switching with WSOR 3806 at Hartje Lumber, which is just east of the old CNW depot in town (the short brick building to the left of the rear of the train). He picked up an empty lumber flat off the switch back in the foreground and then ran back to get the rest of his train:

He spotted the one hopper car a scrap dealer on the way on the “short pass”, and then pulled up to finish running around his train. I moved one crossing down to shoot him again:

In a couple of minutes he was off with the whole train in tow. He has one last shot at Pace Plastics on the east

2524

Sucks about 212. I was hoping to get a shot of it. Hopefully it’s not a pandemic, since I’d like to get the rest of the Maroon bunch when I get moved up there.

Very interesting to hear about the J 38s, though. That could very well turn out to be rather nice(sorry, EJE818, but I love me some SD38s). Hopefully the J won’t be completely 38-less, though.

2525

I can’t see the entire fleet of EJ&E SD38-2s being sent up to the DM&IR. Maybe they would send a couple up but I can’t see all 20 of them going up there because then there would be a surplus of power up there. One question Noah, how are you able to tell if a engine has straight air braking or not? I’ve always wondered how you can tell if a engine has stright air.

2526

What maroon bunch… Theres at the most 3 maroon units out there.

2527

There are 5 maroon engines remaining, 211, 213, 215, 308 and 403. All 5 of them are currently in service now that 213 was fixed from its little sideswipe incident at Proctor without being repainted.

2528

Robby, on the modern Missabe units the most obvious outside sign of straight air is an extra set of air hoses mounted higher up on the engine. The two hoses are visible along the handrail stanchions in this photo:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=264938&nseq=3

There might be other external signs, but that’s the main one I know.

From looking at the J motors, I don’t think they have that part of the straight air system installed, but I was told many do have the internal set of pipes for straight air, as do most of the BLE motors. It was something USS had put on most of their units so they could be interchangeable. That’s why the CN was able to shift the BLE 909 and sister over to the Missabe after the takeover. They didn’t have those outside air hoses while on the BLE, but when the unit came to the Missabe it was added. I would be curious to confirm that the EJE units have straight air piping, but I believe they do.

I’m pretty sure you’re right that it probably wouldn’t be more than a few units, not the whole fleet. With the downturn in ore traffic right now though, the CN doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get more units with straight air installed up to the Missabe anyway.

Noah

2529

Is 210 gone, too?

And yeah, I also don’t see CN putting all 20 of the 38s up here, either.

2530

Yeah, plus CN just converted all those ICs to straight air braking as well, so sending more SD38-2s up there wouldn’t be the best solution. Personally I’d like to see more B&LE power reassigned to the DM&IR. I would’ve rather CN replaced the maroon engines with the B&LE SD40-3s than the IC power.

Unfortunatly, CN has stored a good portion of the IC 6000 and 6100 series and most of the GTW SD40-3s at Homewood, Memphis and MAC Yard. 2 of the 3 WC SD40-2s are also in jeopardy also, 6004 and 6006, both of the ones I’ve seen lately. Both the WC flag and map engines are in jeopardy also, as well as a third WC GP40 I couldn’t get the number of. CN has even stored IC 6071, which is one of the ones stored at Memphis.

Edit my last post, there are 6 DM&IRs left. I forgot about 210. 210, 211, 213, 215, 306 and 403 are the 6 left.

Thanks for the info, Noah! Hopefully now I’ll be able to tell if a engine has straight air or not. I’ll have to look for it next time I see a Missabe assigned IC down here for maitenence and see if I am able to tell.

2531

Ah, okay. I thought I was going to have to continue to enjoy watching 210 only in my half a dozen pics and two videos of it. First unit I saw in action, and one that holds a special place in my inner railfan(well, actually all three do. 316 for being the first unit I saw period a week after it was retired, and 211 for the fact that it was still in Gopher paint, as well as I braved cloud to ground lightning to catch the shot).

Also, what happened with 213? I heard it got sideswiped or something.

2532

Although its sad to see another maroon locomotive get painted, that CN scheme sure looks nice on the SD40-3’s, so I assume that the 212 will look pretty sharp!

Robby, anyway you can get more of those IC numbers that are stored?

Great shots everyone, I had a pretty decent New Year’s day railfanning. Shot the SOO 6058 leading, shot two MRL SD40-2XR’s at Pigs Eye (the INRD leased ones) and shot my first repainted (and nice looking I might add) SOO GP38-2, 4403. The WC Transfer left town Lite power, which I couldnt believe.

Alec

2533

Alec, that is just proof the economy is bad when you see trains leaving with no cars. Unfortunatly the J has been pretty silent for the last couple of weeks for that very reason.

Some of the IC stored are 6000, 6003, 6004, 6011, 6014, 6018, 6032, 6070, 6071, 6117, 6122, 6123, 6125, 6128, and 6130. There are more that I couldn’t get numbers of.

WCs are stored are 3012 and 3027, but 3026, 6004 and 6006 could also very well be stored.

GTWs stored are 5934, 5936, 5937, 5938, 5939 5942, 5944, 5949, 5951, 5953 and 5956.

CN 6015 and one of the 5300s are also stored.

These engines are stored in three places. Homewood, Memphis and MAC Yard. Some of the engines I listed were found in reports while others I got from photos and from going to Homewood yesterday.

Also of interest at Homewood is the Alco/MLW deadline with various OCRR and NBEC RS18s, as well as NBEC C424s and M424s. Also of interest is a ANY GP9, which CN got in 2007 when the purchased that railway.

2534

made two new vids, both have stuff from MSTS and TRS2006. MSTS and IL-2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsoOzgvpfMo&feature=channel_page TRS2006, this is my newest route that I made - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kQRIYpondg&feature=channel_page you’ll have to copy and paste this b/c I forgot to use IE to post hyperlinks…oops.

2535

It does, but not on the Missabe range. The Missabe painted their engines maroon for a reason. The units get covered in taconite dust and turn brown. With the maroon paint you cant even tell. On the CN units it looks horrible.

2536

Thanks for the numbers Robby. Hopefully they will take them out after the slow months of January and February. Max, I can see that overtime they will most likely end up looking horrible, but Im just happy to see that CN atleast is keeping a few of the former DMIR units.

Alec

2537

The IC pos SD40’s look even worse being black…strikes me odd that CN would care bout this however…the IC units haven’t faired well up here…going through the two harbors yard i’ve seen two with major problems and they constantly overheat and have hood doors open…never saw a 38 overheat…but then again what do i know…i just work with the retired DMIR shop forman lol

2538

Yea…about that…

2539

Just be happy they arent GEVO’s and SD75I’s…Things could be far worse!

2540

Thats for sure, at least CN didn’t send any GEVOs up there! Then again, if they did that, then the 6200 series IC would still be running around here! If you don’t like the ICs we’ll gladly take them back on home rails here! :stuck_out_tongue: